family, travel, writing

September 2010

Earlier this week Nalani finally took her first swing ride at the park. Big sis Melina loved being able to help out and push, but needed a little coaching to push the swing itself and not her sister’s feet.

I remember putting Melina down, still in her penguin costume, the night of her first Halloween. At exactly five months, her body was the perfect size: Solid enough to give a hard squeeze yet small enough to carry for hours. Now that Nalani’s reached that same size, I’m remembering how much more there is to enjoy about five-month-olds.

Our little girl has developed a sense of curiosity. Whether it’s how the Ergo strap tastes or what’s going on at the table she can’t quite see from her infant chair, she’ll let us know she wants to be in the know. We pulled out the exersaucer and she likes to bat at its toys for short spells of time, plus she still loves her play gym, winkel, and pink grab ball that Grandma made. She doesn’t use her binky much anymore, but favors her thumb or a teething toy. She also LOVES to talk, and makes all sorts of happy baby sounds at all times of day and night. Sometimes her 3am wakings are full of little more than coos and giggles.

At a yoga class the other day I sat her in front of me and was admittedly shocked to see her sit up, straight back, all on her own for more than a few minutes. She eventually slumped into the two-armed gorilla pose, but it won’t be long before she’s sitting on her own. Where did the time go and when did she learn to do that? (A testament to us being waaaay too busy!) She also loves to “stand” while we hold her arms, and wants desperately to be upright like the rest of us rather than flat on her back. But while there – or in her infant chair – she’ll gladly grab her toes in what the Berkeley yogis call “happy baby pose.”

Daddy indulged himself earlier this month and fed her a taste of avocado while we were at a restaurant. She wasn’t sure what to make of it. A few weeks later he decided to give her a small taste of banana and that went over much better, but she has yet to have her first “real” solid food meal. I’d been holding out til five months or when she started to grab at our food. She’s reached both milestones at about the same time.

I’m now back at work two days/week and Nalani has adapted amazingly well to daycare. It helps me that it’s just two days. Grandma and Grandpa also watch her once each week, when they all enjoy their regular walks by the new house and then to Sweet Adeline for yummy treats.

On the sleeping front, Nalani now starts off each night in her crib, in the room she shares with Kai and Melina. The transition was absolutely seamless. In fact, Melina and Kai seem to go down better now that Nalani’s in the room. (Who says we need a bigger house?) Of course the babe moves into our room after her first nightly feeding, mostly because we’re too tired and lazy to trek her back across the house. She had a month-long stretch of great sleep, waking just once in the early morn, but is now back to multiple night wakings. Growth spurt? Teething? Who knows. We just hope it ends soon.

I haven’t been updating the blog much lately because we’ve been busy – even moreso than usual. Besides being in escrow for a new house (story and photos to come at a later date), we’ve had two weddings in two weekends. The most recent was Brian and Jen’s, and since it was on the coast in Half Moon Bay we decided to use the occasion for a small getaway with the girls.

Melina was thrilled at the idea of spending an evening with princesses and immediately latched onto our friend Cassandra, the “purple princess” (yes, dressed in lovely, shiny purple). She also liked the “white princess” (bride Jen), her first Shirley Temple, a plate full of french fries and fried chicken (the food was Peruvian), the fire pit outside, and most of all, the series of cakes shaped like gifts wrapped in white with blue bows.

Nalani enjoyed the fire pit and new faces for about 40 minutes then took a really long snooze strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn. She also liked staring out at the ocean, as did Melina. Before the wedding party we walked along the coast looking for mermaids. I was half joking about it, and didn’t realize until our way back to the hotel that Melina really thought we’d see one. She was pretty bummed that we hadn’t, and at age three didn’t seem to care when I told her they’re even more elusive than whales.